Shortly before the outbreak of the Dominion War, Red Squad was assigned to crew the USS Valiant, on a training mission to circumnavigate the Federation. Following the outbreak of war, the Valiant found itself trapped behind enemy lines. When the ranking officers were killed, Cadet Tim Watters assumed command, and kept the ship behind enemy lines. For eight months, Red Squad carried out the missions assigned to the Valiant, until, on stardate 51825, the Valiant engaged a Dominion battleship prototype. The ship was lost, with only three survivors – one Red Squad cadet among them, Dorian Collins. (DS9: "Valiant")

The Red Squad insignia was an altered version of the USS Enterprise TOS command division assignment patch, the arrowhead changed from gold to red, the "star" division logo made gold and extended outside the arrowhead, and the bordering of the arrowhead also changed from black to gold.